News Releases - 2006
German economic sociologist Heiner Ganssmann awarded John G. Diefenbaker Award to work at the University of British Columbia
Ottawa, April 6, 2006 – A prominent German scholar is coming to Canada to further his research on the sociology of money. Heiner Ganssmann, professor in the Department of Sociology at the Free University of Berlin, has been awarded this year’s John G. Diefenbaker Award by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Under the terms of the award, Professor Ganssmann will contribute to the ongoing research of the Institute for European Studies at the University of British Columbia and the transnational networks of scholarly exchange at UBC. He will spend up to a year at the Institute to work on a research project on the sociology of money. The research will include both cultural and economic approaches to the analysis of money and anchor them in a broad theoretical project. Professor Ganssmann has also been invited to participate in seminars and collaborative research projects at Memorial University of Newfoundland, McGill University, Université de Montréal, York University, Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria.
“Professor Ganssmann’s work is on the cutting edge of this very promising area of investigation,” wrote Sima Godfrey, director of the Institute for European Studies at the University of British Columbia, in her letter of support for Professor Ganssmann’s nomination. “He is one of the foremost economic sociologists working in Germany today. His presence at UBC would invariably plug the Institute for European Studies as well as the larger UBC community into a lively national and international network of scholars.”
Established in 1991, the John G. Diefenbaker Award is an annual award honouring the memory of former Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker. It enables a German scholar to spend up to 12 months in Canada to pursue research in the social sciences and humanities. Candidates must be nominated by a university department or research institute in Canada. The value of the award is up to $75,000 provided by the Canada Council for the Arts, plus a travel allowance of up to $20,000 provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Funded by an endowment of approximately $2 million from the Government of Canada, the award is administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Heiner Ganssmann
Heiner Ganssmann has taught as a professor in the Department of Sociology at the Free University of Berlin since 1980, specializing in economic sociology, social policy and sociological theory. His initial research interests concerned the interaction between economic and political forces and institutions. He coauthored Krise und Kapitalismus bei Marx (Marx on Crisis and Capitalism, 1975) and Einführung in die Gesellschaftstheorie – Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft und Staat bei Karl Marx und Max Weber (Introduction to the theory of society – Karl Marx and Max Weber on the economy, society and the state, 1976).
From 1977 to 1980, he was assistant professor of economics at the New School for Social Research, Graduate Faculty, in New York City. He published articles on Marxian political economy in History of Political Economy, Social Research, Economy & Society, Leviathan. Later, he developed a theoretical framework for economic sociology, culminating in his book Geld und Arbeit (Money and Labor, 1996).
In the 1990’s he shifted the main emphasis of his research to empirical studies of interactions between social policy, the welfare state and labor markets. The resulting books were Lohn und Beschäftigung (Wages and Employment, 1996, with M. Haas), Arbeitsmärkte im Vergleich: Deutschland, Japan, USA (Comparing Labour Markets: Germany, Japan, USA, 1999, with M. Haas), Politische Ökonomie des Sozialstaats (Political Economy of the Welfare State, 2000), Arbeitsmärkte im Vergleich II: Niederlande, Dänemark und Schweden (Comparing Labour Markets II: Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, 2001, with M. Haas). In his current research Professor Ganssmann is again focusing on the sociology of money.
General information
The Canada Council for the Arts, in addition to its principal role of promoting and fostering the arts in Canada, administers and awards prizes and fellowships to over 100 artists and scholars annually in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences and engineering. Among these are the Killam Prizes, the Killam Research Fellowships, the Molson Prizes, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts and the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.
For more information about these awards, including nomination procedures, contact Janet Riedel Pigott, Acting Director of Endowments and Prizes, at (613) 566-4414, or 1 800 263 5588, ext. 5041, or Alexis Andrew, Acting Endowments and Prizes Officer, at (613) 566 4414, or 1 800 263-5588, ext. 4116.
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This document is also available in German.